Why you should care about the Seattle Storm

Meet Tina Thompson, the latest WNBA star to join the Seattle Storm. She played basketball for USC in the late ’90s, led the now-defunct Houston Comets to four consecutive WNBA titles, and as a member of the Los Angeles Sparks became the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer.

Tina Thompson arrives on the red carpet to the NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 20, 2011, in Los Angeles. (Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)

She has two Olympic gold medals as a member of the U.S. women’s national team, from the 2004 games in Athens and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. She’s 6-foot-2, averaged 4.6 rebounds and 9.9 points per game last season, and is one of the WNBA’s most elite forwards.

But she isn’t just that tall, sweaty, dominant athlete people see on the court.

“Basketball is what we do, it’s not who we are,” Thompson said Wednesday at a preseason event for media. “Like, I’m a woman! You know? So I wanna wear, like, lovely things and I wanna kinda dress up. And I think that there’s a misconception a lot just about women’s sports in general because, for the most part, 90 percent of the time, everyone sees us in athletic clothes. Or they see us in basketball attire or something like that. So when they see us outside of it they’re like: ‘Oh my gosh! You’re so girly!’ I’m like: ‘What’d you think? I’m a girl!’

“Outside of this I’m very normal. I go and get my own groceries. I’m picky about my fruit — I’m probably gonna go through, like, six or seven apples before I find the right one. You know, we do normal things just like everyone else.”

The thing is, this is the sort of stuff WNBA fans already know. Seattle Storm fans may know that guard Katie Smith has a golden-doodle named Logan, grew up among lots of animals at her childhood home in Ohio, and often comes to the gym wearing high heels. Storm fans may know that the secret — one of the secrets — to guard Sue Bird’s success is that she takes two-hour naps before every game. They may know forward Lauren Jackson has a tattoo that says “Mum,” likes to write poetry and at one point wanted to become a U.N. diplomat.

WNBA fans are fans not just of the women as athletes, but the women as women.

Lauren Jackson poses for a portrait for the Australian national team. (Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

“I think that our fans are there because there’s a genuine care,” Thompson said, “not because there’s this kind of superficial idea that they have to support this guy because they see him on all the magazines or on the TV, and they think that he’s cool because of that. I think that our fans generally, I mean, really know who we are. You know, as people, as athletes. There is a true connection that you don’t get in the NBA or in most professional sports in general.”

Seattle’s 2012 season tipped off Friday morning with a preseason game in Tulsa, Okla., where the Shock beat the Storm 86-60. Bird didn’t make the trip; she was getting ready for the U.S. national team’s exhibition match Saturday against the Chinese national team in Seattle. And Jackson won’t join the Storm until after the Olympics, as she trains to compete with the Australian national team.

For the Storm this season, one big challenge will be remaining competitive and cohesive despite a month-long break from mid-July until mid-August. Because it is an Olympic year, and many WNBA players are competing in London, the league is taking a break for the 2012 games.

“The one thing to be said about this break is, every team has to deal with it,” said Bird, who will be playing in her third Olympics. “And it’s just really a matter of who’s gonna kinda not let it bother them the most. And I think for our team, the unique thing will be that Lauren — we have a new player joining us that will have to kind of get into the mix of things pretty quick. But even though the break seems kinda long … those that stay, they’re practicing a majority of the time, keeping things going. And then when we come back, it really feels like we never left.”

Another challenge — though perhaps less of one, considering the team’s apparent rapport at Wednesday’s media event — will be the Storm’s new faces. For the past two years, Seattle’s roster has been largely the same. That group of women won the WNBA championship in 2010 and went 28-6 last season, losing two of three games to Phoenix in the Western Conference semifinals.

Sue Bird speaks with media on May 9 at the Storm's facility at Seattle Pacific University. (Nick Eaton/seattlepi.com)

New this year are veterans Thompson, Ann Wauters and Victoria Dunlap. The Storm also added youngsters Alysha Clark and Shekinna Stricklen, the latter of whom Seattle drafted in April with the second overall pick.

“This year we have a new look, there’s a lot of new players,” Bird said. “So it’s getting them acclimated, getting everybody kind of on the same page. But even though we have new players, we’re also very experienced, so I don’t see that taking that much time. … You know, in the last couple years it’s just been laid out for us, because we’ve had the same group from one year to the next. But now it’s time to figure out how this group is gonna do things and how we’re gonna be successful.”

“In a couple weeks, it will feel like this team’s been together for years,” she added. “That’s how it always happens.”

Next, the Storm host the Los Angeles Sparks for their second and final preseason game on Sunday at KeyArena. The regular season begins Friday, May 18, with a game against L.A., again in Seattle.

Thompson, meanwhile, is looking forward to finally being on the friendly side of the Storm Crazies — the fans who fill up the seats at KeyArena to watch Seattle’s only remaining professional basketball team. For years, she has come into hostile territory as a Los Angeles Spark.

“The Storm Crazies! They are a little crazy, yeah. So, I’m definitely excited,” Thompson said. “I’ve actually run into a few of the Crazies at Starbucks and the grocery stores. … And I’ve kind of been getting the same couple lines: ‘Oh! I’ve hated you for so long! It feels so good to now love you and be able to cheer for you! Well, actually I did love you but I couldn’t really love you, you know?’

“So it’s really funny — but totally genuine though. They’re really serious. Like, it’s not a game: ‘I really did hate you even though I think that you’re good, and I’m glad that I can cheer for you.’ So it’s kind of funny and cool at the same time. I haven’t really gotten down the response. You know, just kinda like, ‘Thank you?'”